I started Kiss My Bundt Bakery to fill a void with Bundts! The motto of this company, and this blog is that "we've got your BUNDT Covered." I won't just cover your BUNDT in this blog, I will also share stories about baking, teaching, learning, and essentially my efforts to build a community bakery in Los Angeles.

June 19, 2011

I've spent most of my life baking for family and friends, starting when I was 8 years old with my Easy Bake Oven. My entire life, everyone told me that the cake was really good. "But," I Thought, "there are a lot of good bakers out there.".

I longed to find ways to introduce my love for baking and cooking into my professional life, especially after late night Food Network marathons. I would always wonder how I might be able to work in the food industry in a meaningful way to both make amazing products and help develop the love of Baking and Bundts in others.

Then, six years ago, the person that taught me the love of baking (My Aunt Dia) passed away, and this was the catalyst to make that change in my professional life. I realized then that life is short: we don't have time to short-shrift our dreams. (I later re-learned this lesson 1 year later when my mother passed away)...

My love of baking, flavor development, and desire to work in the food industry grew to be so large that it couldn't be contained in my office cubicle.

Six years ago, today I officially launched my part-time dream until a full-time reality.

If someone would have told me back in 2005 that:

One day there would be a retail brick-and-mortar bakeshop opened...and...

Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be featured in the Los Angeles Times Food Section (Four Times) for delicious and innovative flavored Bundts......and...

Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be one of the top highest reviewed bakeries in Los Angeles...and...

Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be featured in the New York Times Business Section...and...

Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be written about in our favorite magazines, like Angelino, Westways Magazine, Family Circle Magazine, Sunset Magazine...and...

Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be featured on all local LA television stations...and...

My favorite reporter of a network would come and do a 3 hour "feature" within my bakery...and..

Kiss My Bundt Bakery would win awards for both it's Bundts and for it's Baking Classes...and...

Kiss My Bundt Bakery would teach Baking Classes in cities across the United States...and...

Kiss My Bundt Bakery would write a cookbook that would become one of the highest ranked Baking Cookbooks on Amazon.com...and...

The you can buy the Kiss My Bundt Cookbook in Barnes and Nobles across the United States...and..

That Kiss My Bundt Bakery would even HAVE a cookbook...and...

Kiss My Bundt Bakery would have nearly 4,000 supporters and fans on Facebook/Twitter...

(Actually, back then, we didn't even know what Twitter was!)...and...

That I, Chef/Owner Chrysta Wilson, would sought after to audition for the same food network shows that I loved (and that I would turn then down based on principles and core-values misalignment)...and..

That I, Chef/Owner Chrysta Wilson, would be chosen as one of the most Interesting People In Los Angeles for the LA Weekly 2010 People Edition...

Well... If someone would have told me all that, I would have said they were crazy. All that would have seemed so impossible.

And yet, here I stand, 6 years later, with all the joy that comes from seeing your Dreams come true, wrapped in a box with ribbons.

So, on this 6 year Anniversary, I want to thank each and everyone of you for your support, your purchases, your compliments and feedback, your comments, and your incredibly good taste.

T H A N K - Y O U

We're celebrating 6 years today by participating in a charity bakesale that will raise money to fight Childhood Hunger.

Leave No Cookie Behind

@Scoops

12 N Heliotrope, north of Melrose, west of Vermont, in East Hollywood.

2pm-till we Run Out!

http://nocookieleftbehind.wordpress.com/donate/

Come by and say Hi!

Again, without your support and purchasing power and relationships, I know that Kiss My Bundt is just a girl that can bake. (There are millions of us out there). Thank you for helping me make Kiss My Bundt Bakery much more than that!

December 20, 2010

Controversial Post, I realize. But something in me couldn't ignore this and be quiet. If you're uncomfortable with the topic or images of race, please skip this post.

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In addition to being the Chef and Owner of Kiss My Bundt Bakery, I have another business focused on social justice and community building. I make sure not to blur these lines, because people come to Kiss My Bundt for lighthearted fun, baking classes, or to learn how to get great cakes and confections. You don't come here for social commentary on the state of race relations in America.

But with a recent Duncan Hines advertisement video, the two passions in my life, as well as my experience being an African-American Chef raised by parents who grew up in the segregated American South where they faced these images in the 1950's, have intersected, prompting me to at least comment, especially after my friend Chrystal of Duo Dishes was so bold to write this post early this morning: http://www.duodishes.com/2010/12/20/the-duncan-hines-debacle/.

I commented on their blog (i'll repost that comment at the end of this blog post as well).

But first, the video:Disclaimer: Depending on when you try to access this video, Duncan Hines may have pulled it from You Tube.

Defined: Classic blackface is where Anglo-American "white" actors would use burnt cork or paint to color their faces dark black and imitate their best stereotypes of African Americans, beginning in the 1830's.To learn more about blackface, here is a Wikipedia link, thought you can google the subject as well.

I understand that the topic of race is a polarizing one. I have facilitated this conversation among elected officials, government agencies, nonprofits and communities across Los Angeles County. It's a hard conversation, one most people actively avoid. I'm hoping to not be polarizing by raising Duncan Hines-gate here. I know that some bloggers and businesses who've talked about this issue have lost followers and business.

We all see and interpret information through our own lenses, lenses shaped by our experiences. So, while I don't feel the intent of this video was to offend, I think some people find it offensive and I think Duncan Hines should have been aware of this. You may see nothing wrong with this video. No judgement here. This is just one of those posts to get discourse flowing. I'm not a "tar heel" even though I'm from North Carolina. I'm open to all sides.

-Chrysta. Chef, Owner, Instructor. Kiss My Bundt Bakery.

My comment on the Duo Dishes' Post:

Duo Dishes,

Well-rounded post–I think you tackled for me what’s the heart of the issue–Duncan Hines should have had someone on staff that said “Hey, this COULD be perceived as racist and at the very least negatively impact our minority base” and stopped the video from going public.

The lack of diversity (race or perspectives) at Duncan Hines is dangerous for any company with a multicultural, global potential consumer base. When you don’t have diversity of ideas, especially among people with decisionmaking authority, you get public relations challenges like these “Hip Hop Cupcakes”.

When I was a little girl growing up in the American South, my mom was the only African-American manager in her division and she served AT&T as their Diversity Manager. I remember her teaching me about cultural sensitivity at age 8 over an ad that AT&T corporate created that wasn’t sensitive at all. She immediately knew it would be bad–and it turned out that way for AT&T.

The concept of the ad was that AT&T Universal Card was available around the world. Innocent so far, right? The ad’s visuals were a map of the world, and on each continent was a cartoon drawing of a child in ethnic garb. The US has a “white” looking boy in a baseball uniform maybe. Over Europe was a Dutch looking girl in clogs. Over Asia was a Japanese girl in a Kimono. Over the continent of Africa was a dark black monkey with pink lips and a big smile.

I don’t think AT&T’s executives sat around a table and said “Let’s poke fun of blacks by having their continent not be represented by a child but instead a savage animal–a gorilla!–since slaves and their decendents were called that. This’ll be great!”

Instead what happens in these corporations is the lack of cultural sensitivity that allows campaigns like these past the cutting room floor.

23years later I remember that AT&T ad.

Thank you for writing about this issue. Perhaps the net-effect of this DuncanHines-gate is that your readers go to their industries a little more aware of how they can introduce cultural sensitivity in their daily grind.

October 26, 2010

For the last two years I have done a workshop at the LA Chocolate Salon with my friend and fellow author of Fork Me, Spoon Me, Amy Reiley.

In 2009, I did a demonstration on the perfect chocolate glaze. And, it was here that I first came into contact with Christopher Michael Chocolates.

At that year's chocolate salon, I was just entering a chocolate coma. Unable to eat another peice of chocolate, I settled into a double fisting of red wine and water. As the chocolate high ensued, I saw this little booth, with many words on a banner, only one word in particular caught my eye.

"Bacon".

At the entire chocolate show, maybe 40-50 vendors, this was the only chocolatier doing anything with Bacon.

I was intrigued.

Now here's the thing. I've seen the chocolate bacon thing dozens of times. I even created a chocolate bacon cake in 2009 (I think that's the only one out there) and I put the recipe in my cookbook that came out nationally in June 2010.

Often, it's dark chocolate + bacon. But my tastebuds have always imagined that the milk chocolate sweetness against the salty and smokey bacon would really be the ultimate paring.

And in comes Christopher Michael's Sizzling Bacon Bar.

Beautiful and creamy Milk Chocolate, studded with nice pieces of bacon, wonderful sea salt, and them the biggest surprise: popping candy (like Pop Rocks). The popping starts right at the end of your savoring, and really provides a super cool sensory experience to what you're tasting. Christopher Michael really brings in multiple senses in this eating experience.

Fast Forward to 2010. I'm at the LA Chocolate Salon two weeks ago doing a demonstration of my Vegan Chocolate Cake, also in my cookbook. The only chocolate I can wait to get my hands to purchase is the Sizzling Bacon Bar.

And, the icing on my bundt cake, so to speak, was the chance to get to meet Christopher Michael himself. I am for sure in love--with him and with his chocolates!

I won't even get into all of the awards this guy has won. You can see for yourself via his facebook page here: or via his website here.